Online America

American Demographics, March 1, 2001

With online advertising still the key way to generate revenue, dot-coms are now tapping segmentation systems to deliver targeted audiences to clients. Looksmart, a search engine that outlaws porn sites from its results, has used demographic data from Media Metrix to show advertisers that its visitors skew toward women aged 18 and older. ZDNet, the technology Web site, has demonstrated how its little-known message boards have higher loyalty from other demographic groups - and has parlayed that finding into niche ad sales. "The primary use of online measurement data is still to support ad sales," says Stephen Kim, vice president for account development and client information at Media Metrix. "But it also shows sites what types of people they're attracting so they can adjust their content and develop partnerships based on cross-visitation behavior."

Ultimately, such marketing techniques should attract new Internet users in the future. Analysts estimate that the Internet population will reach between 75 percent and 85 percent of all Americans over the next decade. According to the Pew Internet Project, the next wave of Net users will disproportionately include women, African Americans, and senior citizens. As the message spreads that all children need online access to succeed in school, the Web is expected to reach the previously unreachable people in lower socioeconomic groups.

How soon these diverse Americans become wired is anyone's guess. Internet researchers offer widely varying predictions on how long before the Internet audience reaches its saturation point in the U.S. But on the future impact of geeky white guys, they're in remarkable agreement: The GWGs have finally gone the way of the 14.4 modem.

Contributing Editor Michael J. Weiss is a journalist, marketing consultant, and author, most recently of The Clustered World (Little, Brown, 2000), about lifestyle segmentation systems in the U.S. and abroad.